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tjon901 « Best LTD Kirk Hammett sig »
Published on 09/12/11 at 07:50LTD is ESP's budget line of guitars. These guitars are made outside of Japan and come with much lower costs than their fully ESP branded brothers. That does not mean these guitars are bad though. They pretty much come with all the same specs that the ESP models have at slightly lower fit and finish. Many ESP artists play LTD guitars because they find them perfectly acceptable and easier to replace if damaged. This is the LTD version of the KH-2 Kirk Hammett signature. This guitar pretty much has the same specs as that fully ESP version at like half the price. With this guitar you get an alder body with a neck through maple neck. The neck is 24 frets with a rosewood fretboard with pirate skull and crossbone inlays. You have a reverse headstock up top with the LTD logo and a locking nut for the Floyd Rose bridge. The pickups are a set of active EMG's. The pickups in this guitar are an 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck. This is pretty cool because Hammett uses an 81 in the neck on his personal guitars but the 60 in the neck is much more versatile. The controls are two volume knobs and a master tone knob with a 3 way blade switch.
UTILIZATION
This guitar plays great because it is based off of ESP's classic M-II model. The neck though construction means you get no neck joint heel to get in the way. The neck is nice and thin and the fretboard has a pretty flat profile. The frets are huge so you can get a low action and play pretty fast. The Floyd Rose is of a decent quality. once it is setup it stays in tune pretty well. If you do not know how to set one up I would recommend having a pro set it up because you can really mess up your guitar if you start messing with random things on the bridge. ESP is nice and gives you a seperate battery compartment for the active EMG pickups. Some guitars make you have to open up the entire control cavity to get to the battery. On this guitar you can change batteries on the fly.
SOUNDS
The 81 60 set is a classic EMG set along with the Zakk Wylde set. It has a more versatile sound than the Zakk Wylde set. This guitar has the active EMG 81 in the bridge and the 60 in the neck. The 81 in the bridge is a classic setup. It has a nice high gain crucnh to it and with a razor sharp top end. It has a bit of a scooped sound. The 60 in the neck compliments the 81 well. The 81 is kind of limited because it does not clean up well. It has so much output and top end even rolling off the volume it does not get a good clean tone. The 60 is all clean tone pretty much. It has a smoother tone and a lot less output than the 81 in the bridge. So with the 81 and the 60 you get the best of both high gain crunch and cool clean tones. If you are looking for even more versatility you can do the 18v mod. This is when you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one and in turn you get a much more organic sound and more headroom overall.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a great alternative to the KH-2. You get all the same hardware and the same specs for less than a thousand USD. I just done like the inlays. They stand out and pretty much make this guitar for Metallica fans only. I hate when guitar companies make signature models with silly logos on them that pretty much make them for fans of the artist only. This guitar is a good guitar overall but most people would rather just have plain inlays. If you are a Kirk fan and want a great guitar with Kirks Inlays this is a good option.
UTILIZATION
This guitar plays great because it is based off of ESP's classic M-II model. The neck though construction means you get no neck joint heel to get in the way. The neck is nice and thin and the fretboard has a pretty flat profile. The frets are huge so you can get a low action and play pretty fast. The Floyd Rose is of a decent quality. once it is setup it stays in tune pretty well. If you do not know how to set one up I would recommend having a pro set it up because you can really mess up your guitar if you start messing with random things on the bridge. ESP is nice and gives you a seperate battery compartment for the active EMG pickups. Some guitars make you have to open up the entire control cavity to get to the battery. On this guitar you can change batteries on the fly.
SOUNDS
The 81 60 set is a classic EMG set along with the Zakk Wylde set. It has a more versatile sound than the Zakk Wylde set. This guitar has the active EMG 81 in the bridge and the 60 in the neck. The 81 in the bridge is a classic setup. It has a nice high gain crucnh to it and with a razor sharp top end. It has a bit of a scooped sound. The 60 in the neck compliments the 81 well. The 81 is kind of limited because it does not clean up well. It has so much output and top end even rolling off the volume it does not get a good clean tone. The 60 is all clean tone pretty much. It has a smoother tone and a lot less output than the 81 in the bridge. So with the 81 and the 60 you get the best of both high gain crunch and cool clean tones. If you are looking for even more versatility you can do the 18v mod. This is when you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one and in turn you get a much more organic sound and more headroom overall.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a great alternative to the KH-2. You get all the same hardware and the same specs for less than a thousand USD. I just done like the inlays. They stand out and pretty much make this guitar for Metallica fans only. I hate when guitar companies make signature models with silly logos on them that pretty much make them for fans of the artist only. This guitar is a good guitar overall but most people would rather just have plain inlays. If you are a Kirk fan and want a great guitar with Kirks Inlays this is a good option.